Short sales can help some owners avoid foreclosure

DALLAS — For homeowners upside-down on their mortgage — owing more on the loan than the house is worth — foreclosure isn’t necessarily the only option.
There also is a short sale.
A short sale is when a financially troubled homeowner, with the lender’s approval, sells his or her home for less than what’s owed on the loan.
The main benefit of a short sale is that you get out from under your mortgage without liability for the deficiency. A deficiency occurs when what you owe on your mortgage exceeds the amount you get when you’ve sold your home.
“It is a negotiated loss to the bank between borrower and bank,” said Craig Jarrell, president of the Dallas region of Iberiabank Mortgage Co. “You are even and not hit with a deficiency judgment — off the hook.”
But don’t expect the process to be simple and effortless. You’re asking the lender to take a loss on your mortgage, and the financial institution won’t agree to that easily.
Russell Berry, real estate agent and owner of DFW Sells Real Estate in Grapevine, Texas, said the homeowners best suited for a short sale are at least two months behind in their mortgage payment; can’t sell their home for what they owe on it, plus closing costs; and don’t have equity in the house.
For Calvin and Claresia Brooks, a short sale was their only option.
The Brookses bought a home in South Dallas in 2006 but decided not to live in it because both of their jobs were in North Dallas. They bought a home in Garland, Texas, instead and rented out the South Dallas home.
“It made sense for us to lease it out since our jobs were so far away from that area,” Calvin Brooks said.
But several of his tenants ran into hard times and could no longer afford the $900 monthly rent.
“I have had several tenants, and it’s always been something job-related to their getting laid off and trying to maintain the payment on the property,” said Brooks, an internal auditor at a bank.
Then his wife got laid off from her job at a pharmacy benefit management company, which made it difficult for them to afford the mortgage on the rental home and the Garland home.
“I said, ‘I can’t pay this’ ” rental home mortgage “ ‘out of my own money,’ because I was paying our own note,” Brooks said.
The rental home also was upside-down.
“Nobody was making offers for what I owed on it,” Brooks said.
So he worked with his lender and completed a short sale in the spring. Brooks said he owed about $90,000 to $95,000 on the mortgage and sold the home for about $35,000. The whole process took about six months, he said.
If you’re upside-down on your home, here’s what you need to do before entering into a short sale:
Exhaust other options: Financially troubled homeowners should first try to obtain a loan modification.
A loan modification changes the existing loan by lengthening its term or lowering the interest rate so that struggling homeowners can continue to make their mortgage payment.
“A loan modification is the first thing to look into,” said John Anderson, president of Oyezz Real Estate in Frisco, Texas, which specializes in short sales. “That is something they can do themselves with a lender.”
Gather your records: If you choose a short sale, be prepared to justify it.
Because you’ll be selling your home for an amount that won’t cover your loan, you can be sure your lender will want to be absolutely certain you have no other means to pay your mortgage.
“Getting out of a loan is just as hard, if not harder, than getting qualified for a loan,” Berry said. “They’re going to check your finances to make sure you don’t have money hidden away.”
Be prepared to provide bank statements, tax returns and other documents.
“They will make sure your account is not reflecting any income coming in,” Berry said. “They’re going to make you prove you can’t afford it.”
Get help: Find a real estate agent who has done short sales before.
“It’s a complex transaction that requires a lot of paperwork to go to the lender in the correct process,” Anderson said. “If not, the short sale dies, and the consumer in most cases ends up being foreclosed on.”
The real estate agent will help you price your home so the short sale will go through.
“It’s about the value of the property, not what is owed on the property,” said Jerry McCoy, vice president of Homeownership Preservation at Chase Home Lending. “There are so many times that we find that borrowers are listing their house” for sale, “and they’re listing it for the amount that they owe on the loan. But that could be higher than the market value.”
Real estate agent Coffey Caesar said she looks at what other homes are selling for in the area when pricing a client’s home for a short sale.
“I look at the dollars being spent today in their area,” said Caesar, of the Coffey Caesar Real Estate Firm in Dallas.
Be realistic about what you will get in the transaction. The lender has agreed to accept less than what you owe on the mortgage, “which means you will get nothing,” Caesar said.
“There’s not going to be a profit here in a short sale,” she said.
Brace yourself: While a short sale isn’t a foreclosure, it still will hurt your credit.
“They are both bad,” said Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education at credit bureau Experian. “The loan is closed for less than the original amount, so the status is reported as ‘settled.’ A settled account is a derogatory item on par with a foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure.”
Between a short sale and foreclosure, a short sale is the lesser of the two evils but only if “the lender doesn’t report the deficiency balance to the credit bureaus as part of the short sale,” said John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com.
“Both are very bad, but the short sale is better if the deficiency balance isn’t reported,” he said, adding that the practice varies by lender.
The most important thing to remember is that if you have trouble paying your mortgage, contact your lender immediately to see whether you can work things out so you don’t lose your home.
Source http://www.columbiatribune.com/

Several Famous People Held This Trying Summer Job

by Blake Farmer

What do Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Star, Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have in common? They all spent summers in college selling books door to door with the Southwestern Company, a publisher in Nashville that started selling Bibles in 1855 — when Tennessee was the southwestern U.S. In what researchers are calling the worst summer job market since World War II, Southwestern can never have enough workers.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michele Norris.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
It's been a tough couple of years for people who've been looking for summer jobs. But even the most desperate college student might pass up this situation. Door to door book sales, 13 hours a day, six days a week and no guaranteed paycheck. But it is a summer job that some now famous people have endured, including politicians and a big named prosecutor.
From member station WPLN in Nashville, Blake Farmer has this story about the Southwestern Company.
BLAKE FARMER: Pedro Vega loves his job. Or at least he tries to convince himself he does.
Mr. PEDRO VEGA: I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job.
FARMER: Driving down a winding Tennessee road, this recent Texas A&M grad pumps himself up for the next stop. Post It notes of Southwestern slogans and famous quotes are scattered on the dashboard. One says: Successful people form a habit of what unsuccessful people aren't willing to do. How about working through lunch?
Today, it's bologna and white bread. Still chewing, Vega pulls in a driveway. He hops out of the car and sprints to the front door with his bag of book samples. Then he says a little prayer.
Mr. VEGA: Day by day, day by day, day by day, day by day and everywhere by the grace of God, Lord, I'm getting better and better, getting better and better.
FARMER: Southwestern's door-to-door sales started out with Bibles. That was shortly after the Civil War. Former Confederate soldiers hiked from one plantation to the next trying to make money for college. The company left religion for homework help books.
Now moms like Kathy Barrett get a pitch about investing in their child's education. And then comes the price.
Ms. KATHY BARRETT: You know, I completely agree with the whole investment part. But if you're asking me, can I hand you 460 bucks today? No.
FARMER: The job is a 10-week lesson in rejection. Sellers do well to get two yeses a day, which is why they're instructed to sit down with at least 30 families between sun up and sun down. Talk to enough people, someone will buy.
Unidentified Group: The solution to every problem is behind the next door.
FARMER: The Southwestern sales force trains in Nashville for one week at the start of the summer. Before scattering around the U.S., they learn self-motivation techniques. They also role play, negotiating with customers who say they don't have the money.
Ms. ANNA LEE: I won't cash the check until next month. If that works better for you, Mrs. Jones.
FARMER: Anna Lee from Vancouver, Canada, is just one in this year's 2,500 salespeople. Many were recruited from their college campuses after hearing who else spent their summers this way - Texas Governor Rick Perry, Ken Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton, and Christian author Max Lucado. Dan Moore did his time. He's now the CEO who gives the final send off, which is a warning.
Mr. DAN MOORE (President, Southwestern Company): Just before you knock, a truck will come out of the driveway and there's a bunch of people your age, guys and girls, and they've got towels and they've got their bathing suits on and they're laughing and listening to music and they're going to go off to the lake and have a really good time.
FARMER: Don't go, Moore says. Any activity unrelated to sales is strongly discouraged, even calling home during the work week. That's what Sundays are for.
Mr. MOORE: A person makes money according to the results they get.
FARMER: Moore says students essentially run their own business, which means they bear all of the risk.
Mr. MOORE: We are a wholesaler. So the money they make is the difference between what they sell it for and what they are charged for it.
FARMER: Three in ten don't make it past the first few weeks, and they often leave with hard feelings. Some share stories at SouthwesternCompanytruth.com, calling the company everything from a cult to a scam. Students can lose money in the venture. And, of course, some just can't take the heat and the dogs.
(Soundbite of dog barking)
FARMER: With a yapper at his heels, Pedro Vega says it doesn't both him. The potential for a big payout does make the hazards more manageable. Vega took home $22,000 as a rookie and now makes more, with salespeople working under him. Beyond money, he says the job has made him an emotional giant.
Mr. VEGA: I'm not like most people. Most people are miserable and they're sad. They're depressed. They don't care. So I'm going to be one of the coolest people Mrs. Jones is going to meet probably the entire summer, but I'm definitely going to be the coolest person she meets today.
FARMER: And there are still more Mrs. Joneses to see with a few weeks left in the Southwestern selling season.
For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.

Is a home out of reach for this single woman?

By Andrew Allentuck, Financial Post
Situation career woman wants to buy home, build savings
Strategy Put home on hold, focus on investment risk, fees
Solution Home she can afford, sufficient retirement savings
Single and independent, a woman we'll call Maureen is making her way through the corporate world in Calgary. At 33, she is an experienced supply-chain manager. Divorced, with no dependents, she would like to buy a home, likely a condo, and think about retirement at age 60 or so while she is still young enough to enjoy winter sports and travel. She is thoughtful, balancing a past in which she spent too much, ran up debts, then struggled to pay them. She came out of the experience resolved to manage her financial life better. She has accumulated $89,400 in financial assets.
For now, she faces the challenge of buying a condo in Calgary, where, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey for the first quarter of 2011, a standard unit, depending on neighbourhood, is about $250,000.
Maureen currently grosses $6,000 a month and takes home $4,164 after deductions of tax and benefits. That's ample for a single person in many cities, but for her plan to buy a home in a thriving property market, it's not a lot. A standard mortgage with a 25% down payment would deplete her non-registered savings of $47,000 and still leave a gap before she could make a $62,500 down payment.
She has contemplated a move to Vancouver, where salaries are higher for her type of work. She might get a similar job to the one she has now with a $100,000 salary. But Vancouver standard condos, according to the Royal LePage survey, average $500,000 to $600,000 with wide variations among neighbourhoods. Even at the low end of the price range in most areas, Maureen would need $125,000 to make a 25% down payment.
Maureen is caught in a career dilemma: If she pursues a higherincome job, the cost of property in Vancouver may still leave her renting. Even a high-ratio mortgage insured by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. could be problematic. She might be able to make a 10% down payment in Calgary, but the cost of a high-ratio mortgage is huge over the life of the loan. If she could scrounge up a 3.6% rate for a five-year closed term, a 30-year mortgage for $225,000 would have total interest costs of $143,841, about $24,000 more over the three decades than needed to pay off a $187,500 conventional mortgage loan.
"I'm trying to figure out how to plan for my future," she explains. "I've realized that it's more difficult to leverage one income than two."
Family Finance asked Graeme Egan, a portfolio manager and financial planner with KCM Wealth Management Inc. in Vancouver, to work with Maureen.
"She wants to earn and save more with a new job and to build up capital for a home and in retirement savings," he says. "That's a lot of ambition for her stage of life. Maureen is financially mature beyond her years." For now, a condo of her own should wait, Mr. Egan suggests. Rather than plunge into a purchase, Maureen should rent for a while longer, try to get a higher-paying job, and build up savings for a conventional 25% down payment. Before her divorce, she owned a home and therefore cannot qualify for the RRSP Home Buyers Plan.
Maureen saves $1,299 a month in her RRSP, her tax-free savings account and in cash. RRSP tax savings are not very tax-efficient, for her average tax rate is only 24%, counting federal and provincial taxes. She could skip RRSP contributions and add the $575 a month to a home down payment account. In one year, her TFSA and other savings would grow to $62,588 and she would have sufficient money for a 25% down payment on a Calgary standard condo, Mr. Egan says.
Maureen's RRSP assets are two funds that her bank has cobbled together with blue-chip Canadian, U.S. and global stocks. One of these wrap funds is 75% stocks and 25% bonds. The management fee of 2.5% is cheap compared to some other global balanced funds but is still costly for the fixed-income content, eating up most of the bond interest. Her other wrap fund has a 2% management fee but almost all equity exposure. The funds have underperformed the majority of similar funds and carry currency risk, too. She is paying a good deal for performance that hasn't happened and future performance is likely to be drained by high fees. She is exposed to the European national debt crisis, Japan's posttsunami economic abyss, and the recurrent melodrama of how the United States will pay its debts. All this may work out for the best, but for now, Maureen's global investments are suffering.
ResolvinG Risks
Maureen should use lower-cost investments to avoid erosion of her assets by fees, Mr. Egan suggests. After all, performance is speculative but fees are certain. She can buy exchange-traded funds, which are mutual fund portfolios traded like stocks, with management fees 20% or less than those she pays for her mutual funds. She might also consider index funds sold by banks and other vendors. They tend to have somewhat higher fees than ETFs, but they expand the menu of substitutes for high-fee managed funds. She can pick from many bond index funds or bond ETFs that ladder their holdings in corporate and government bonds and that can easily ride up the trend of rising interest rates with new bond returns offsetting small declines in the market price of old, low-interest bonds.
Assuming that Maureen remains a diligent saver and assuming further that her $42,400 of present RRSP balances grows at 7% a year for the next 27 years and that she contributes $500 a month after a one-year suspension while she builds a down payment for a Calgary condo, she should have $711,000 at her age 60. If that portfolio is drawn down to zero by the time she is 90, it will yield $51,600 a year. While a 7% return might seem aggressive, she has the time and resilience to use investments a little riskier than average and to have bond allocations in a range of just 20% to 30%, Mr. Egan says.
Add in CPP payments of $11,520 a year and OAS benefits of $6,404 a year, all in 2011 dollars, and Maureen should have permanent retirement income of $69,524 a year. She would lose a small amount of income to the OAS clawback that currently starts at $67,668. However, in retirement and with RRSP savings discontinued, no rent and a mortgage fully paid, she would have more disposable income than she now enjoys. She will have met her goals by disciplined saving with a potential boost from a higher salary -if she can get it.
z Need help getting out of a financial fix? Email andrewallentuck@ mts.net for a free Family Finance analysis.
Financial Snapshot
Income
monthly after-tax income $4,164
Monthly Expenses
subtract
Rent $1,265
food $300
Restaurants $250
entertain. $350
car fuel, repairs $150
clothing, grooming $150
RRSP $575
TfSa $600
cellphone, cable $200
Travel $100
Savings $124
misc. $100
Total $4,164
Assets
RRSPs $42,400
TFSA $17,000
Savings account $30,000
car $30,000
Total $119,400
Debt
subtract
no debt
Net worth
$119,400

Burglaries Force A Rise In Home Insurance Claims

By MoneyHighStreet Staff
Burglaries are up 14% year-on-year and over 60% of Brits think burglary levels will further increase, forcing more home insurance claims. Can more security measures though be taken?

 Along with Home Office reports that burglaries are up year-on-year, new research from Allianz Insurance suggestss a continued post recession rise in crime.
These burglaries are causing more home insurance claims with the average claim value rising.
As Mark Bishop from Allianz Insurance UK, comments: “We also undertook this research pre-recession in 2008 when Brits were already concerned about crime levels, since that time the average claim on our house insurance for theft has jumped by £227.
“Worryingly, our research has revealed that one in 10 Brits have not even considered security measures for their home – in the current environment we are urging homeowners to review their home crime prevention measures as a matter of urgency.”
Many homeowners are choosing to take a more risky step in protecting themselves and their property, taking home security into their own hands with over 40% now having a potential weapon to hand.
Weapons include a kitchen knife, baseball bat, heavy torch, scissors and umbrella.
Lack of security measures

Even though many acknowledge an increase in crime, many homeowners have failed to make their home as secure as possible.
This is largely down to a need to save money and a generally negligent attitude to security.
Nearly 70% don’t have a house alarm, over 30% don’t have locks on all windows and doors and a further 43% have left accessible doors and windows open over night.
With the help of Allianz Insurance here are some security tips to reduce the risk of burglary:

• Install deadlocks on external doors
• Leave a light on in a main room if you go out in the evening
• Never leave ladders or tools lying around – an ideal target for an opportunist thief
• Close and lock all garages, sheds and other outbuildings when not in use
• Don’t let strangers into your home unless they give you official proof of their identity, which you should verify
• When you go on holiday, cancel milk and newspaper deliveries
• Keep a record of your possessions, for example the serial numbers of TV’s and DVD players and take photographs of valuable or unusual items.

MoneyHighStreet said: “The rise in the number of burglaries needs to be taken seriously. Taking up the above advice will in the main cost very little money, you just need to be proactive with the simple security steps.
In addition, be careful what information you make public on social network sites. Many inadvertently publicise an outing, short break or main summer holiday. Fine for friends to see, but divulging such personal information can put you at risk.
Above all, do make sure you buy the best insurance to meet your needs, opting for a bespoke high net worth home insurance policy if you perhaps have high value jewellery, a valuable arts, wine or antiques collection or other non-standard contents or buildings.

Sallies plan home visits food parcel recipients

The Salvation Army in Tauranga is planning follow-up home visits to food parcel recipients to try to make sure people are not selling or raffling their parcels in pubs.
Community ministries officer Rob Bartlett said he was concerned that people would feel pressure to make money off their donated food parcels as tough times hit.
While the Salvation Army would continue to offer referrals to Tauranga's Food Bank, the organisation would start screening food parcel recipients with home visits afterwards.
"When you don't do that, you could have people getting cash advances. That's the last thing we want. There's enough needy people out there now," Mr Bartlett said. "It's something we would hope to put into place in the near future."
Mr Bartlett said it was important to realise people who were selling their parcels were not necessarily reflective of all food parcel recipients.
"There might be one or two people doing that but the rest of them get the food parcels because they desperately need them."The Salvation Army assesses each family's food parcel request and makes referrals to the Tauranga Food Bank, which supplies the parcels.
"Usually if people rip us off, sooner or later we find out about it and people will be keen to tell us," Mr Bartlett said.
In Rotorua, some families had been seen trading their food parcels for money or trying to raffle or change the value of meat vouchers, the Daily Post reported.
Agencies had also heard of people receiving a food parcel and then raffling it off in hotels.
Tauranga Food Bank's Glenn Spedding said he had not heard of anyone trying to sell food parcels locally.
While the food bank was busy, it had been a gradual increase in demand, Mr Spedding said.
"We probably are getting more as redundancies happen and [because of] the price of food at the moment.
"We are busy.
"We are doing about 40-odd a day and we still need food to come in or money. But for the foreseeable future we are doing okay."
In Tauranga, families were allowed only three parcels from the food bank before they were referred to a budgeting adviser.
In Rotorua, the limit is two, and as well as people raffling parcels, some were also changing the numbers on meat vouchers to try to claim more than they had been given.
Rotorua Salvation Army community services manager Graeme Stark told the Daily Post that was disappointing, considering the group was trying to help people who had a real need.
"It's meant to help take them to the next pay period," Mr Stark said.
Source http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/

Southern Cross's incurably flawed business model let down the vulnerable

The collapse of Southern Cross has re-ignited the debate over the role of private finance in the care-home sector

Residents sit outside a Southern Cross care home in Camberwell Green in south London. The company collapsed earlier this week after landlords took back the leases to its 750 care homes. Photograph: Paul Hackett / Reuters/Reuters

Southern Cross will soon cease to exist, as landlords take back leases linked to the firm's 750 care homes because it can no longer afford the rent. New operators will be brought in and Southern Cross will be remembered as a financial failure that heaped shame and ignominy on the sector. But how did it come to this? Britain's largest care homes operator, with 31,000 residents, was once a force in the land.
It's easy to see why. Not so long ago, running care homes for the elderly and sick seemed an easy way to make money in a country where the population was greying at a faster rate than anyone could remember. Most elderly residents were bankrolled by local authorities, offering private-sector operators a steady stream of income from the taxpayer.
Interest rates were low, allowing companies to borrow to expand their estates at a time when banks were falling over themselves to furnish loans. Councils were feeling generous and agreed annual fee increases ahead of the rate of inflation, making it simple for operators to cover their costs.
Against this background, Southern Cross prospered. A former executive remembers: "It sounds corny, but it really did seem we were in a land flowing with milk and honey."
By 2003, the company owned more than 100 homes and was attracting the attention of investment bankers. "You could see the firm was going places – management was ambitious and as it grew, so did the financial returns," said the former executive.
A year later, US private equity group Blackstone acquired Southern Cross in a deal worth £167m. Ludicrously, as it turned out, Blackstone supported a sale-and-leaseback business model that was all too common at the time.
Under this system, Southern Cross's operating company and property assets were separated. It was blatant financial engineering but it made sense on paper: acquisitions could be financed by spinning off the bricks and mortar into a different company, selling it on to property investors and then using the proceeds to buy more care operators.
Blackstone's biggest transaction was the £564m purchase of NHP, a property company that owned the leases to many of Southern Cross's homes. Blackstone later sold NHP for £1.1bn to a fund backed by the Qatar Investment Authority. As with other deals, Southern Cross's Middle Eastern landlord insisted on upwards-only annual rent increases, of around 2.5%.
As long as the boom lasted, Southern Cross was able to generate large amounts of cash and invest in its homes to make them attractive to local authorities. The sale-and-leaseback model worked fine when property prices were heading north: property players were happy to invest, and Southern Cross was willing to agree to upwards-only rents as it could borrow at cheap rates.
But after the financial crisis, Southern Cross was hit by a triple whammy: falling property prices put the brakes on what proved to be a reckless expansion programme; tough economic conditions saw local councils freeze or lower fees for residents; and worst of all, the company was now locked into rising rents at a time when income was being squeezed. It was a recipe for disaster.
Even during the best of times, profit margins in the care homes business are thin; as long as occupancy rates remain comfortably over 85%, a company that leases its homes from landlords can make good profits. But below that level, it becomes harder to break even, leaving businesses vulnerable to relatively small changes in the trading climate.
Research has shown that Southern Cross's occupancy rates fell every year from 2006. And it cut capital expenditure in its homes, hitting standards of care for residents, making them less appealing to local authorities.
A version of the sub-prime crisis was hitting the sector and other operators felt the pinch, with several seized by creditors. Barclays Capital, for instance, took over Care Principles, a company that looked after patients who had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
At Southern Cross, deteriorating standards of care were seeping into local media reports. By 2009, Southern Cross homes were attracting the attention of the Care Quality Commission. A report in the Observer last month disclosed that nearly 30% of the group's 581 centres in England had been served with improvement orders by CQC inspectors.
The tide had turned against Southern Cross for another reason. Local authorities were trying to care for more elderly and frail people in their own homes, so by the time they arrived at residential centres, their condition had deteriorated to include dementia, immobility and incontinence, which are more expensive to care for. Southern Cross was forced to take on more overheads as revenues declined, and all the while there was the ticking timebomb of a rising rent bill, which had reached £230m a year by January.
Blackstone left long before the bust. It floated the company for £640m in 2006 and sold its last Southern Cross shares a year later. In total, the private equity firm made a profit of £1.1bn on its original investment. Others were left to pick up the pieces.
Jamie Buchan, the chief executive who took over two and a half years ago, never really had a chance. He was reluctant to talk about what had gone wrong yesterday, but in May he told the Financial Times: "I've never come across this lease structure before. The model doesn't work through hard times."
The failure of Southern Cross has re-ignited the debate about whether private-sector operators can be trusted to provide social care. Unions, such as the GMB, are certain the idea is a bad one. Amanda Gearing, a regional organiser in the West Midlands, says: "Residential services should be left to local authorities, not companies with shares listed on the stock exchange. They will always put profits before people." Labour party stalwarts, like Michael Meacher, agree.
But Peter Hay, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, says: "Not all private care is bad. Private companies have pumped in £19bn of investment in the last 20 years. You would never have got that from the public sector. Also standards are getting higher. In 1991, I remember a local authority home where there were six men to a bedroom and 12 sharing a bathroom. These days having your own room and facilities is becoming the norm."
But Emily Thornberry, shadow health minister says: "Social care cannot be left to uncontrolled market forces."
She and others believe better supervision is vital. But surprisingly, no body in the UK seems to have direct responsibility for ensuring private care companies avoid risky business models of the kind that sank Southern Cross.
Health minister Paul Burstow says the new NHS regulator, Monitor, could perform such a role. At the Department of Health, officials are working on proposals to require care home operators to take out bonds underwriting the continued care of their residents in the event of their financial failure.
These are steps in the right direction, but more needs to be done because one thing seems sure: without tighter regulation and better policing, there will be more Southern Crosses.
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk
 

Dexter embraces soldier, girlfriend whose home burned

All the soldier wanted was to come home from war. But as A-Jay Irelan and his fellow Iowa National Guard members made their return journey from Afghanistan to Iowa, he learned he might not have a home to return to.
A Wednesday morning fire destroyed the two-bedroom trailer home in Dexter that Irelan, 25, shared with girlfriend Erin Richey, 33. The couple lost 10 pets - five dogs, five cats - and everything they owned.
Richey and her son Layne, 12, were not home at the time, but were left with only the clothes on their backs. Irelan, en route to Iowa from a yearlong tour of duty in Afghanistan, had only the gear stuffed in his duffel bag. That amounted to his military uniforms and two changes of civilian clothes.
But word built quickly in the Dallas County community of nearly 700. Help was on the way.
"People helped me find a house to rent," Richey said Thursday. "The church, people in town and people I don't even know have donated money to help make a deposit."Richey and Irelan grew up in Des Moines. She graduated from Roosevelt High School. He graduated from Hoover High School. They met while working at Calvin Community, a Des Moines retirement center. He worked in the kitchen. She was a nurse's assistant.They moved to Dexter with Layne about three years ago. They weren't the most well-known people in town, but when trouble arose, people came from all angles, Richey said.
"I've had people send me messages on Facebook that don't even know us saying they were going to help us do this or that for us," Richey said. "It's really been great. There are all these people from Roosevelt, my classmates and others, who are helping."
The military is pitching in, too. The National Guard offers assistance to armed services members in need. Counselors work with local charities and organizations - churches, Veterans of Foreign Wars chapters and community human services programs - to provide help in these situations.
The government also sets aside money from donors and other sources as part of the Armed Forces Relief Trust for help. The charity distributed $150 million to struggling service members in 2010.
"We will do everything possible to help in these situations," said Shalee Torrence of the Iowa National Guard, who oversees cases like Irelan's.
Richey praised the Guard's efforts on her and Irelan's behalf. The work by friends, family and strangers humbled her. She knew there would be long days ahead. She ached for her pets and longed for her boyfriend to return.
Irelan is due back in Iowa in a few days. He may well find himself in a new place and a new (or slightly used) wardrobe.
But he certainly will be able to come home.
"We're going to make it," Richey said. "It's going to be hard, but we'll get it back together."
Source http://www.desmoinesregister.com/

Racing: Small fields will make it hard to swell the bank

By Michael Guerin
A perfect storm of factors may leave punters struggling to make money at Alexandra Park tonight but that won't be a problem for the Kumeu Trotting Club hosting the meeting.
While the fields are the smallest in living memory for a Friday night meeting at Auckland's home of harness racing, the Kumeu club is, surprisingly, set to come out on top.
Just 55 horses over eight races will contest tonight's meeting, in no small way because of the fact Cambridge raced last night and Northland race here on Tuesday. Tonight's fields have been hit hard because Kumeu, being a smaller tenant club, don't boast the high stakes the Auckland Trotting Club do so they have struggled to attract horses looking for easier opportunities last night or on Tuesday.
Yet the KTC will profit from tonight's meeting, with the reduced number of races and starters meaning they will pay out much less in stakes.
And with their turnover guaranteed to 85 per cent of the original budget by HRNZ, that coupled with inter-track betting on the Addington meeting tonight will mean the meeting is a financial success.
That may not mean a lot to punters but it still means Northern Harness have done the responsible thing holding the meeting, even though it starts with 16 horses in the first three races.
"We have an obligation to hold race meetings where possible and this one will make money," said ATC racing manager Kevin Smith.
"That means money in the pockets of owners, trainers and drivers, which is vitally important."
The smallest field of the night still poses an interesting test for punters as group one winners Sir Lincoln and Devil Dodger clash for the third time in recent starts.
The key to their meeting in race two, and many of the races tonight, will be the usual racing pattern for small fields at Alexandra Park, with little mid-race pressure making for sprints home.
That would seem to play into the hands of Sir Lincoln, who has the gate speed to go forward and dominate the race until he needs to dash home, which suits him perfectly.
Devil Dodger has been a little plain by his high standards in recent starts but could be more potent over 2200m, although in such a tactical battle he could be left to try and work past Sir Lincoln at full speed.
Punters wondering how to make money tonight simply need to look for leaders or trailers and be willing to double up on smaller dividends.
The first race sees a real mobile specialist in Snowed On as a great bet as he has already shown recently he is too strong for Muscle And Power.
Delight Brigade in race three looks another leader and is chasing a free win as a 3-year-old, while also chasing a bonus is Tiger Tina in race seven.
FRIDAY NIGHT FANCIES
Best: Sir Lincoln (R2, Alex Park): Should lead and win.
Next: Snowed On (R1, Alex Park): Loves the mobile and has handy young driver in Vincent Langdon.
Each way: Joshua Mac (R6, Addington): Good from a stand and comes in well tonight.
Stable changes: Westminster Chapel (R5, Alex Park): Now with Steven Reid and good winner at the workouts. Can overcome draw.
Comeback: Tozzie (R3, Rangiora): Former trotting star now with the Hope stable and comes into ideal race.

Houston Co. making money on other counties' prisoners

By Morgan Thomas - bio | email

CROCKETT, Texas (KTRE) - Housing inmates is becoming big business for Houston County.
The newly opened jail is welcoming inmates from all over, essentially saying "make yourself at home."
"I'll just start right here," said jailer Richard Smith. "These are what we call special cells. We use this primarily if an inmate's acting out."
Smith, is proud of his new facility.
"Down here I'll show you the violent cell," Smith said.
The cutting-edge county jail is now open for business.
"Any new facility around that's larger than their immediate necessary certainly looking to fill that space and off-set some of the cost," Sheriff Darrel Bobbitt said.
"The only thing we do with out-of-county inmates is book them in, take a mug shot and they're placed in the back," Smith said.
Each one translates into dollar signs for Houston County.
"You're trying to locate counties close enough that it would be advantageous to them and you to house their prisoners and hopefully bring some of their tax dollars into your county," Bobbitt said.
They have a way to stay competitive in this business.
"By not telling who I've got contracts out with right now," Bobbitt said.
Ten prisoners from Trinity and Walker County are already housed here.
"It's a tremendous savings for us," Trinity County Sheriff Ralph Montemayor said.
Neighboring Trinity County's jail was built in 1938.
Montemayor says state jail standards force him to transfer all but one of his inmates.
"We're sitting at 30 prisoners so you can do the math of saving $4 per prisoner per day," Montemayor said.
"We think we're the perfect fit for Trinity County," Bobbitt said. "They can drive over the county line 15 minutes. They can be here to interview their inmates."
Houston County Commissioners just approved a measure allowing the sheriff to temporarily enter into a contract with other counties.
This is without prior approval.
Commissioners will review and approve it at their next meeting.

How to rent your way up the property ladder

If you need a bigger house or want to move nearer to a good school but can't sell your home, returning to the lettings market may be the solution. As the Chowdhury family found out. 

By Graham Norwood

Kamal Chowdhury may not know it but he is a symbol of a new trend in today's lacklustre housing market – a trend in which owners leave their own homes, let them out and rent a new base for themselves and their families instead of continuing up the traditional property ladder.

He is not so much an "Accidental Landlord", cited as a symbol of market torpor, as an "Intentional Landlord": an owner with no prior experience as a landlord but who believes one of the few ways to make money from property today is by renting out his home.

"I had a plan to sell and move to a new catchment area for my children. But uncertainty over the sales market – and the strength of the rental market for landlords – meant I chose to let. This seems more profitable for the next year or two," explains Chowdhury, a freight company director.

So he let out his three-bedroom house in Milton Keynes and moved a few miles away to a larger, five bedroom house, which he rents with his wife and two children, aged 10 and 17. He is in no rush to buy – at least for himself. "I will rent out my owned home for two or three years and see what happens. If I buy something soon it's likely to be another house for letting out," he says.

It is unsurprising that people are letting. Average rents across the UK have risen for five months, according to LSL Property Services, owners of Your Move, Reeds Rains and several other High Street agencies.

Rents rose 0.5 per cent in May alone, the most recent figures available, taking the average UK rent to £696 per month. Rents have risen fastest in London, where they are 7.8 per cent higher than a year ago, but the lettings market is good for landlords almost everywhere: the north-east has seen a 6.4 per cent increase and the East Midlands a 6.2 per cent rise, according to LSL's monthly Buy To Let index.

"Soaring inflation has taken its toll on would-be buyers' deposit funds. This rocketing cost of living, combined with the difficulty first-time buyers are experiencing in obtaining a mortgage, is increasing the numbers reliant on renting," says LSL's commercial director, David Brown. As a result, he says, "rental gazumping is more commonplace and properties are being let beyond asking price, putting further pressure on the market. For tenants, unable to buy, renting is becoming less affordable. Rents are increasing twice as fast as wages."

A booming market

Figures from Countrywide – owners of estate agents ranging from top-end Hamptons to small, regional firms selling lower-cost homes across the country – show a 20 per cent rise in new tenants registering for accommodation in May alone. The firm's chief executive, Grenville Turner, reports "an increasing number of owners dual-marketing their properties in the sales and rental markets, to see where the greatest financial value is".

The potential to make more money from renting than selling is what influenced chiropractor Janet Simpson to let out her home in Plymouth, Devon. "I was going to sell to move closer to my mother in Bristol but found, if I let it out, I could afford a rental property for me, plus a small profit. I haven't been a landlord before and don't intend to be one for long, but there's a profit to be made right now," she says.

"Will I buy a home for myself again? I don't know. There's a lot to be said for renting – no mortgage rate worries, less maintenance than as an owner. I might just stay as I am and see how long it pays to be a landlord," she adds.

Not trouble-free

Not that acting as a landlord is trouble-free. Experts say there are six key issues to address, the first of which is to ensure your mortgage lender and insurer are on board.

"Although many people let their homes without informing their lenders, this is in breach of your mortgage contract. You should seek 'consent to let', which means you can rent out your home for a short period of time – usually a year or two, depending on the lender," says Melanie Bien of mortgage broker Private Finance. "Lenders decide this case-by-case. You'll either continue with the same mortgage terms, pay a premium or in the worst case you may have to move to a buy-to-let mortgage. This usually means a higher rate and could mean you must pay off a chunk of the outstanding mortgage to fit the lender's maximum loan-to-value requirement," she says.

You should also tell your insurer you are letting your home, and possibly switch to a specialist landlord insurance policy. Failure to do so means the firm could refuse to pay out should you make a claim.

Second, gas appliances must be checked and certificated, electrical appliances must be checked, modern furniture must meet strict fire-resistant regulations, and new Energy Performance Certificates must be issued for your home whenever a new tenant moves in.

"Even if [an owner] has just one rental property, they must remember they're subject to the same laws and regulations as a landlord with 50 or 100. With around 50 Acts of Parliament and 70 separate sets of regulation, there's plenty for a landlord to get his head around," says David Salisbury, chairman of the National Landlords Association.

Third, charge a competitive rent. If you hire a lettings agent, who will charge a (tax deductible) fee of up to 15 per cent of your rental income, they will advise you. If you go it alone, check local agents or property websites such as www.primelocation.com and www.rightmove.com to see what they charge for similar properties.

Fourth, when you find tenants, check they are bona fide. Again, a lettings agent will do this but if you are a DIY landlord check the tenant's references, name, address, employment status and credit history. The National Landlords Association's www.nlatenantcheck.org.uk does this for £28. It is usual to take a six-month deposit but this has to be placed into a recognised deposit protection scheme – for example, www.mydeposits.co.uk or www.depositprotection.com.

Fifth, set up a proper contract to safeguard yourself and your tenant. A standard shorthold tenancy agreement (the typical contract when you let out your home for six months or more, with two months' notice to quit from yourself or your tenant) can be downloaded from sites such as www.rla.org.uk.

Hard work pays off

Finally, be prepared to work for your income. You should respond to tenants' requests if there are problems. When the stopcock sticks or the toilet blocks, you may recognise the need for good insurance or, perhaps best of all, the usefulness of hiring a lettings agent for the duration of your time as landlord.

If all this sounds like hard work... well, it is. Being a responsible landlord is not meant to be easy, but the rewards are good in today's market, even outside London and the south-east. LSL figures show that the average rent in East Anglia is £719, while in the south-west it is £625 and in the north of England it varies from £513 to £565.

One day, a glut of lettings property may lead to a drop in those figures, but no expert believes that day is coming soon. For intentional landlords, this is a time to make hay.

The Accidental LandlordsThe rise of the 'Intentional Landlord' has not meant the end of that other phenomenon, the 'Accidental Landlord' – an owner-occupier who tries and fails to sell, so lets out their home while still trying to find a buyer.

"About 30 per cent of our landlords are reluctant," says Rosanna Guest of John D Wood lettings agency in Esher, Surrey. But this trend is not a new one – it happens in every recession.

Estate agents first used the term in 1990, with the last downturn in full swing. Then in 2006, a year before the latest slump, a survey by the National Landlords Association showed 43 per cent of landlords did not buy their first rental property with the intention of letting it out.

They "stumbled" on letting because of a change in circumstances, such as inheriting a property, ending a marriage or being obliged to work in another area. Back then, homes were often not sold because owners felt they would see prices rise if they waited; today's slump is down to buyers not getting mortgages and thinking that if they wait, prices will fall further.

The latest figures from the Land Registry show a continuing decline in transactions with an average of 44,300 sales per month – less than half the peak figures reported six years ago – so don't expect 'Accidental' or 'Intentional Landlords' to disappear any time soon.

Elderly residents face yet more care home closures because of councils' cash squeeze

By Steve Doughty
Elderly residents face another round of care home closures because of a cash squeeze by councils, experts warned yesterday.
Hundreds of homes may be forced out of business because of cuts in the fees paid by councils for their state-subsidised residents.
The threat to thousands of the most vulnerable people comes on top of the anguish caused by the collapse of the Southern Cross group and the risk of 500 of the care homes it operates shutting.

More than half of the 418,000 older people in Britain's 20,000 care homes have their bills paid by local councils because they have no income, savings or property to pay their own way.
But a report by market analysts Laing and Buisson said that seven out of eight councils have this year either reduced or frozen the fees they pay for their subsidised residents. Inflation is continuing to push up care home operators' costs.
Cutbacks in council fees mean the operators may try to make a profit by increasing the fees they charge to the 40 per cent of residents who pay for themselves – often out of the money raised by the sale of their own homes.
Already bills for private payers are between £50 and £100 a week higher than those paid for state-supported residents. The other alternative for squeezed operators is to shut.

The report said the outlook for care home owners was 'bleak'. It found: 'They face yet another tough year thanks to local authorities again failing to match the increasing costs of providing a placement for an elderly resident in the fees which they will pay.
'This has led to concerns that in the wake of the collapse of Southern Cross, more operators could be forced into administration.'
The report found that 140 of the 158 councils that gave figures had this year frozen or cut their fees. Eleven paid increases of 2 or 3 per cent. Only seven put up fees by 3 per cent or more.
The Daily Mail's Dignity for the Elderly campaign has highlighted the difficulties facing those forced to move out of their home because it closes – and the risk to their lives that is often involved.
Councils last cut fees for subsidised care home residents in 2002 and 2003, but the unpopularity of home closures persuaded many to reverse their policy.

New record for U-Md. human-powered helicopter: 12.4-second flight

By Jenna Johnson

The last time the students attempted to do this in May, they celebrated a flight of just over four seconds. True, 12.4 seconds doesn’t seem like a long time. But for the University of Maryland engineering students who watched as their 100-pound, human-powered helicopter floated off a gym floor Wednesday, it must have felt like eternity.

While Wednesday’s time still has to be verified by the National Aeronautic Association, it is clear that the university is still far from claiming the $250,000 Sikorsky Award, which will go to whomever creates a human-powered helicopter that can reach an altitude of at least three meters and hover for at least 60 seconds
To prepare for flights this week, U-Md. students studied their May attempts, enhanced the helicopter cockpit and transmission, and added LED lights that turn on when the helicopter is off the ground.(My previous coverage)
You can read more about Wednesday’s flight on the U-Md. A. James Clark School of Engineering Web site. And check out the cell phone video of the flight (after the jump):

County Home a growing concern

By NICHOLAS L. DEAN OBSERVER Mayville Bureau , The OBSERVER

MAYVILLE - The County Home is becoming a growing concern for county lawmakers.
Or at least it should be, according to Chuck Nazzaro, D-Jamestown, who told the OBSERVER on Wednesday that the publicly owned nursing home is running out of money.
Both Tim Hellwig, County Home administrator, and Colleen Wright, finance director, attended the regular June meeting of the Audit and Control Committee last month. At that meeting, the pair presented legislators with the County Home's audited 2010 financial statements.
As predicted, the County Home had to deplete part of its fund balance to make up a loss of $1,788,542 in 2010. In October of last year, during the legislature's budget process, Nazzaro said that without a county contribution to receive federal matching funds, the County Home would begin operating at a deficit.
In 2009, the County Home had a positive bottom line of $2,254,750. That surplus, however, happened only because the County Home received $3,810,522 in IGT funding, called Intergovern-mental Transfers.
From 1995 to 2005, the County Home received $10.5 million in state IGT funding. Then, in 2006 and 2007, there was no IGT funding paid to the County Home. Beginning in 2008, the state IGT was replaced with federal IGT, which saw a local contribution from the county of $2.1 million in 2008 and $1.9 million in 2009.
Essentially, for every dollar put into the County Home by the county those years, the County Home received matching sums in IGT funding. In 2009, according to Nazzaro, the match was around $62 for every $38 put in by the county.
"So they received in 2009 over $3.8 million which they did not receive in 2010 because of the tight county finances," Nazzaro said. "It was decided by the legislature that we could not continue to offer to match the IGTs."
Without the funding in 2010, the County Home ran at a deficit of $1,788,542. As a result of the operating loss, the County Home saw its fund balance drop from just under $7 million at the end of 2009 to around $5.2 million at the close of 2010.
The situation should be a concern to lawmakers, Nazzaro said, because, without a county contribution for IGT funding, the County Home is only going to continue eating up its fund balance.
"The County Home is needed in Dunkirk, I don't question that," Nazzaro said. "But if we continue like this, the fund balance will be depleted in the next two or three years and then the county will be responsible for the deficit because, even though it is a separate enterprise fund, it is owned by Chautauqua County.
"And that is no reflection on the ability of the management and the staff of the County Home," Nazzaro continued. "They run a very fine facility. However, right now, if we don't continue to fund the IGTs and if anticipated reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare continue to decrease, the County Home is going to be losing upward of $2 million a year from operations."
THE NEXT STEP
The next step is not to close the County Home, according to Nazzaro.
"I think we need to seriously look at the possibility of either privatizing the County Home or possibly leasing out a portion of it to a non-public, private facility which could offer assisted living. A lot of your private homes offer less skilled nursing and offer more rehabilitative services and more assisted living. It is my understanding that a public home cannot offer assisted living, so, one thing we could look at is partnering with a private, non-public entity to maybe offer assisted living because we need to change our model of operation."
Nazzaro continued on to say that he is somewhat disappointed that the county did not begin working on such a partnership or privatization effort years back. In 2009, Nazzaro chaired an ad-hoc committee which evaluated the County Home and made a number of recommendations regarding the facility to the county.
"I presented this two years ago to the full County Legislature and, yes, some of the recommendations made have been incorporated," Nazzaro said. "That has been very positive. However, I feel that the bigger picture has been ignored. Looking at the 2010 financials and projecting where the 2011 and 2012 are going to be, I think we need to go that next step."
Nazzaro said he intends to ask Legislature Chairman Fred Croscut, R-Sherman, to resurrect the ad-hoc commission on the County Home. Additionally, Nazzaro spoke of the county maybe having to hire a consultant familiar with the type of situation the County Home is in to help transition the facility into either privatization or a private partnership.
"Although the County Home provides the highest level of patient care, county taxpayers can no longer afford to subsidize it," Nazzaro said. "The County Home must stand on its own if it is too continue as a county asset."

Why the U.S. could use a strategic default

By Jeff Reeves

ROCKVILLE, Md. (MarketWatch) — It is a sad situation when hard-working CEOs and money managers who make this country great must watch a bloated federal budget waste our hard-earned money.

Millions of Americans claim they are old, sick or laid off — and, instead of working for an honest livelihood, employ all their time begging for a government handout. They drive up the national debt with their dependence, and they are responsible for the current budget mess we are in.

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious spending is deplorable. So amid the current debate over the debt ceiling, I feel compelled to offer my Modest Proposal to fix our free-spending ways: a strategic default on our debt.

It’s a strategy employed by many homeowners underwater on their five-bedroom homes in Las Vegas, and it’s one we should put to use on a national scale. It’s time we put an end to criticism for our past behavior and not allow ourselves to be held hostage by creditors.

America, it is time we just walk away.

Politicking over the debt ceiling has brought the chance of a default to the forefront. But, even if Congress could reach a compromise before the Aug. 2 deadline, this would be the wrong decision. As in the case of a homeowner who must bend over backward to pay a mortgage on a home worth a fraction of the original loan’s value, it’s simply not worth the effort.

It is better to simply wash our hands of this mess, suffer the short-term pain and come out a better nation on the other side. As you’ll see, there are clear benefits to a strategic default on our national debt and a decision to simply stop paying the bills.

The end of the welfare state

The shutdown of government spending will serve short-term needs in balancing the budget and address long-term budget problems we face due to the Nanny State mentality in Washington.

Take Medicare, one of the biggest causes of our current budget trouble. If we slash spending dramatically, we will not only eliminate one of the biggest drains on the U.S. Treasury, but we will also fix the nagging demographic problem caused by the baby boomers living longer and clogging Social Security rolls.

Without health care, surely few of our seniors will survive into old age. This will dramatically reduce both future Medicare and Social Security payouts.

These socialist programs are part of the problem. It’s time to make them part of the solution.

The restoration of free markets

Even worse than these big-ticket programs are the money-wasting programs that actively undermine our free-market system.

For instance, why do we dish out $12 billion for the Department of the Interior? It’s time for Uncle Sam to get the sticky fingers of regulators off trees and rocks once and for all. They exist in nature just fine on their own — and, if parks can’t compete in a digital age, they have no one to blame but themselves. When an agile and innovative timber company pulls into town, the market should decide who succeeds and fails.

And that’s just for starters.

City council top brass take home £1.5m as 800 staff lose jobs

CHIEF executive John van de Laarschot cost Stoke-on-Trent City Council more than £225,000 last year as 800 of his staff lost their jobs.
The authority's top officer took home £191,032 in salary and allowances, as well as £6,903 in expenses and benefits in kind.

Contributions to Mr van de Laarschot's pensions pot hit £28,640, bringing his total pay for 2010/11 to £226,575.
Seven directors, two of whom have now left, shared £924,000.
Conservative Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has called on top-earning town hall chiefs to cut their salaries, claiming their pay packages "could make a football manager blush".
Simon Baker, chief executive of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, is understood to have taken a 7.5 per cent cut on his £152,000-a-year package.
Martin Hamp, of Clematis Avenue, Blythe Bridge, was among the campaigners who lost their fight to save Shelton Pool from the council's first wave of cuts.
The 56-year-old used the pool to help him to cope with a long-term health condition.
He said: "It makes us very angry. People are having to make serious cuts in a financial crisis and the people at the very top keep their lavish environment.
"It's a case of do as we say and not as we do. Unfortunately it's the world we live in."
Dave Conway, leader of the opposition City Independents group, said: "John van de Laarschot said he would have the authority on its feet and running in three years.
"The clock is ticking. After three years we will see if he has been value for money.
"The council will always say you have to pay top money to get the top men."
The figures are revealed in the council's annual accounts, which show 800 of the council's workforce had contracts terminated in 2010/11 as part of a £36 million cuts package.
The council paid out £11 million in compensatory payments to staff losing their jobs.
It expects to pay out almost £900,000 more in redundancy packages as a further 80 workers leave this year.
Among the directors to leave in 2010/11 was Jeanette McGarry, director of housing, environmental and neighbourhood services. She received a £130,000 out-of-court settlement after suing the council for libel and sex discrimination. Ms McGarry was fired while undergoing cancer treatment.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council said it reviewed salaries last year and reduced the number of executive officers in top pay brackets, saving £1.37 million.
A city council spokesman said: "As with any local authority, officers are entitled to remuneration payments in line with the terms and conditions for their posts.
"The city council is facing challenging times and needs to ensure that the we attract and retain the best people with responsibility for delivering authority's services.
"John van de Laarschot has not taken a pay cut, because his annual salary is already significantly lower than the rate agreed by the council.
"The salary for the post of chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent City Council was advertised up to £195,000 per year.
"When Mr van de Laarschot was appointed chief executive in January 2010 he was paid an annual salary of £179,000."
John van de Laarschot took up his post as chief executive in November 2009, initially working two days a week using annual leave from his equivalent post at Torridge District Council in Devon. He moved to the city full-time in January 2010.

 Source http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/

More Wives in Canada Out-Earning Husbands on Education Gains

By Greg Quinn

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Alexandra Macqueen says she wants family happiness and not a “feminist dream” as she pursues a full-time career while her husband works from home and makes their daughters’ lunches.

Though she doesn’t like to advertise it to family and friends, the projects director at BlueRush Media Group Corp. in Toronto also makes more money than her husband, who works at another media company.

“I never set out to be either an executive or to out-earn my husband; it is how things turned out for us,” says Macqueen, 43. “The whole idea of fluid gender roles is super exciting and liberating.”

Canadian women in growing numbers are making more money than their husbands, after three decades of gains in post- secondary education and professional jobs. About 31 percent of wives made more than their husbands in 2009, up from 12 percent in 1976, according to the most recent data from Statistics Canada.

The shift from a few generations ago, when most women quit work as they married, is sparking other changes from who does the dishes to how companies market products to richer women.

Macqueen’s husband Warren Huska, 48, said he enjoys the chance to be more involved in raising their six- and nine-year old daughters in Canada’s biggest city. The increased acceptance of self-employment and consulting contracts has also helped with juggling career and family, he said.

“Anyone it works out better for, they should go for it,” he says about flipping traditional roles, before he ended the telephone interview to make his daughter’s lunch. On his wife’s career he says: “Who am I to do anything but applaud that?”

Demands in Education

Women in Canada have advanced in prestigious jobs that demand the most education. In 2009, women accounted for 55 percent of medical professionals such as doctors and dentists, according to Statistics Canada.

“The representation of women now, which is so strong in medical schools, is really the manifestation of a lot of investment in the potential of women,” said Ashley Miller, a medical student at the University of Ottawa.

Miller, 24, vice president of advocacy at the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, was in Ottawa lobbying the federal government to ensure a diverse pool of medical students. “Long term, we would want to look at solutions to encourage men to apply to medical school,” she said.

The U.S. has also seen a rise in women taking higher-paying jobs. The share of American working women with a college degree tripled by 2009 from 1970, and women accounted for 51 percent of U.S. management and professional occupations in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

‘Right Balance’

The U.S. is also one of three nations of 181 studied by Harvard University and McGill University in Montreal that don’t guarantee working mothers leave with compensation.

Canada has found “the right balance” between the U.S. system and expensive European family benefits, said Tracy Redies, president of Coast Capital Savings, the country’s second-largest credit union and the company with the highest percentage of female executives, based on a survey by Catalyst Canada. Redies has four children and also worked for two decades at HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank.

“To know you can come back to a job and not necessarily have to give up your tenure or position has to be extremely important for the psyche of the parents,” Redies said from Vancouver.

In 2001, Canada increased parental benefits to 35 weeks from 10 weeks, and five years later the share of fathers taking time off had risen to 20 percent from 3 percent, Statistics Canada said in a 2008 paper. In couples where the mother earned the same or more than the father, the father was 2-1/2 times more likely to file for benefits.

Closer to Customers

Redies said her company’s inclusion of women is a business advantage because it helps create new ideas and brings the company closer to its customers.

Women in Canada and the U.S. controlled 33 percent of North America’s wealth in 2009, the highest share in the world, according to a July 2010 report by The Boston Consulting Group. The worldwide average was 27 percent and the lowest share was 11 percent in Africa.

Companies can make money by taking advantage of the growing financial power of women. Investors should consider buying retail stocks including Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Tiffany & Co. to profit from the trend, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in January.

Not Super Rich

Households where women earn more than their male partners may have less to spend on luxuries because of gender inequality in wages. Canadian women earned an average C$721 ($749) a week in June, or 76 percent of the C$946 made by men, according to Statistics Canada.

“The bulk of them are going to be lower middle class families, not the super rich,” said Alison Konrad, professor of organizational behavior at the University of Western Ontario, and an author of more than 50 articles on gender and diversity.

The additional earnings power hasn’t necessarily freed women of household chores. Women spent an average of four hours and 38 minutes a day on unpaid work last year, about the same as in 1998, Statistics Canada said July 12. For men, the time devoted to unpaid tasks rose 15 minutes over that period, leaving them 73 minutes short of the female average.

“We still see a gender factor whereby men are reluctant to take on a major proportion of responsibility for the home and children, even when their wives earn substantially more than they do,” Konrad said in an interview.Editors: David Scanlan, Lisa Kassenaar

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net.

Talking Money: Not-So-Extreme Couponing

By JEAN CHATZKY
Have you seen "Extreme Couponing" on TLC? If you have, I have no doubt that it piqued your interest. If you haven't, here's a crash course. The topic is people who go to, well, extremes to save money on groceries. They stockpile, Dumpster-dive for circulars and make couponing a full-time job. And they save — often upward of 90 percent on their grocery bill. No, that's not a typo.
One hourlong episode, and you're thinking about how you can get in on this game. Groceries are one of the biggest household expenses for most families, and cutting down that cost creates wiggle room in budgets that is often desperately needed these days. But what if you don't have a double-wide pantry to store your deals, which often involve large quantities. What if Dumpster-diving isn't your forte? Or you don't feel like bumming Sunday papers off the neighbors?
Perhaps you'll consider Not-So-Extreme Couponing. This method will save you money — lots of it — but also save you time and space, says Jeanette Pavini, a household savings expert at Coupons.com.
She put it to the test, using a stopwatch to plan a menu for a family of four and pets based solely on coupons and sale items. It took her 20 minutes to clip coupons, another 20 to plan meals. She saved $114, about 46 percent off her bill. By doing this on a regular basis, Pavini estimates that families could save $1,400 a year on groceries in just 40 minutes a week.
Here's what you need to do:
Make a list/menu plan. What you buy and eat each week should be contingent on your store's current sales and the coupons you have. Stephanie Nelson, the founder of CouponMom.com, calls it being "brand flexible" — which means you might have to buy a different brand of ketchup or a new kind of cracker to chase sales and discounts. This strategy was key to Pavini's experiment, she says.
Take a combined approach. To maximize your savings, you're going to need the Web and your Sunday circulars. To stay organized, Nelson suggests writing the date on the cover of each circular. Then visit a website such as CouponMom.com and find your local store. Most sites will bring up a list of the deals currently offered by that store, as well as any items that have an associated coupon. CouponMom.com also tells you the date that coupon was featured in a circular. You can select the deals you want to narrow down the list, then click print.Stack. This is a way of combining promotions, and it's probably the cornerstone of the "Extreme Couponing" approach: You take an item that is already on sale and add a coupon. It's also how some people actually make a profit couponing, says Nelson. "National grocery chains like Kroger or Safeway will have a promotion, so if you buy 10 participating items, you automatically get $5 off your order. That's 50 cents off each item. Those items are also always on sale, and if you also have a coupon, you're stacking three programs and you may actually make money."
Stores have different policies on this, so ask your store manager if you're confused.
Pay attention. Grocery store sales are cyclical, meaning the same item will generally go on sale at regular intervals — every two weeks, four weeks, six weeks. If you pay attention, you can learn the rhythms and always catch your favorite items at rock-bottom prices, says Nelson.
Think outside the grocery store. Tons of stores offer and accept coupons these days, says Pavini. "It's not just about cereal anymore. You can find coupons for cosmetics, entertainment, toys — this has really expanded." Often these coupons are featured on the same websites as grocery coupons — Coupons.com has sections for home entertainment, office supplies, even photography — and you'll find some in your Sunday circular as well.
Be sure to save your circulars for the following week. And note that many sites and store websites allow you to load coupons directly onto your store loyalty card, saving more time and paper.
Pay it forward. If you're able to get an extra box of cereal that your family won't eat, or you find a promotion that's just too good, consider donating the extra items to a local food bank. They're struggling right now and could use all the help they can get. You can find a bank in your area at feedingamerica.org.

The First Steps in Forex

Trading foreign exchange, or Forex as it is otherwise known, online can be an excellent opportunity to make money from home. Many traders use the Forex vehicle to make a lot by leveraging all of the valuable resources on the internet to help them get into the best trades possible. There are some things to keep in mind when thinking about trading Forex.Most successful traders spend years perfecting their craft to be as successful as they are today. These are the types of people that you want to learn from. Do not be the fool that thinks he can just jump into the market from day one and start making money. Below are some key points to know before getting into Forex:

1. The Market Never Sleeps  Between the New York, Sydney, Tokyo and London markets there is no down time in the Forex markets. This is actually a great upside for trader that wants to use Forex as a source of supplemental income to their day jobs.  You can either wake up before your day job or set up some trade after you get home from work. But, there is also a downside.  You must always be aware of your open trades. Leaving a trade open can without a stop-loss on can lead to disaster.
 2. Leverage Your But Off  This is one reason that some traders love Forex so much. Most Forex brokers offer largely leveraged accounts so up to around 1000:1. This increase your wins win you do win and magnifies your loses when lose. If done right, though, these leveraged accounts can lead to big pay days.
3. Small to Big Accounts  Along with the leveraged accounts most brokers offer micro-lots which allow to trade without much risk of losing but still offer you the chance to win real money. With only a couple hundred dollars you can open an account and begin trading these lots and make decent money doing so.
4. Demo Account If you are not ready to jump into to the real money world of trading try a free demo account. You have access to all the same trading platforms and tools as the ‘live accounts’ but you are playing with fake money. These practice accounts are a great was to perfect you craft before you take your talents to the main stage.
Remember, Forex is not easy and it takes a lot of time to understand. Read and learn as much as possible before risking any of your hard earned money in the market. The markets are very volatile and can be affected by a number of different factors. Understand these factors and understand the game and you will have taken the first step to becoming a successful foreign exchange trader.
Witten By Jim Thomas
Jim Thomas is a contributing writer for website TradeForex.com. Along with writing he is also and active trader with many successful years under his belt.
Source http://cmvlive.com/

SEO As a Career Option

by Gurpreet Kaur
Today, many of us choosing SEO as career option. There are large scope in northern India specially in Delhi, Noida, Gurgoan and Chandigarh . But we provide the best SEO Training in Chandigarh region . There are many reasons one of the main reason behind this it is basically work on live projects all student are having there own website during there course and they learn all techniques to be the one of the best SEO in near future. It is popular because it is a booming career in IT industry.
IT is basically known as Search Engine Optimization. Today if we want to know about everything, instead of searching local area, we choose to search on Internet. Internet is necessity of everyone. In this situation SEO of any website is essential. Every company has its own website, to meet to new customers globally.
Below are few points why to choose SEO as a career option.

1. Cheap: It is comparatively less expensive course as compared to other courses. Courses like Dot Net, Java and other programming languages are available at Rs. 15,000 but SEO course can be completed in just Rs. 6,000 - Rs. 8,000 which is less as compared to other courses.

2. Short term course: It is also a short terms course that is why in popular in young generation, they can choose this course after +2 as an earning option. Other courses like Dot Net, Java, Web Designing takes up to 6 months for completion but Search Engine Optimization courses is completed in 45-60 days.

3. Less technical knowledge required: In SEO there is no need to any special qualification. Your basic qualification is enough to learn the system of SEO and work under that system. SEO is less technical as it does not includes any logic building and any syntax to learn. All we have to learn is grammar of search engines and how search engines works. We need to understand few SEO tools, tips and tricks.

4. Risk factor: In this career option, there is no effect on recession so students can take SEO as a long term prospectus. As long as there are search engines in this world, SEO industry will last till that time. SEO industry has no effect on recession.

5. High scope: This course has a high number of jobs as compared to any other jobs in IT industry. SEO industry has the high number of jobs especially in India, Bangladesh and Philippines. In future SEO industry will have high number of jobs as compared to database, programming, designing & networking. In India SEO in Chandigarh is in its peak.
So, if you are looking for a shot terms course that requires less technical knowledge and is cheap, Search Engine Optimization is the best option for you.

Survey highlights strength of desire for home-ownership

Published by MILLIE DYSON

Newly published data from the English Housing Survey shows a sharp rise in the number of people renting privately in the last five years, report the CML.
After a century of almost constant decline, the number of people renting from private landlords has increased by 40% since 2005. Between then and 2009-10, the number of people renting privately rose by one million to 3.4 million.
Despite the increase in renting, however, owner-occupation remains overwhelmingly the tenure of choice. Published on the same day as the latest findings from the EHS, a report from the Department for Communities and Local Government on public attitudes to housing in England said that 86% would buy their home if they had a free choice.
Only 14% would choose to rent. Those aged 18 to 24 had both the strongest preference for buying and the highest expectation that they would become home-owners later in life.
The EHS shows there has been a subtle change in the balance of owner-occupiers, with more people owning their home outright and fewer buying with a mortgage.
Over the last decade, the number of homes owned outright has increased by more than 20%, from 5.6 million in 1999 to 6.8 million in 2009-2010. In 1999, almost 8.5 million households were buying with a mortgage. But by 2009-10, this had declined to 7.9 million.
Despite the widespread continuing popularity of home-ownership, the recent strong growth of private renting has contributed to a decline in owner-occupation from a peak of 14.8 million households in 2005 and 2006. In 2009-10, there were 14.5 million owner-occupiers, equivalent to 67% of all households.
Private renting had grown to account for 16% of households, while 17% rented from social landlords.

House prices – and paying the mortgage

Almost half of people (49%) believe house prices where they live are too high. Despite this, however, 79% of home-owners with a mortgage say it is easy to make their monthly payments.
Fifteen per cent say it is neither hard nor easy, while only 5% say it is difficult. Almost half (43%) say house prices in their area are "about right," while only 2% believe they are too low.
People renting privately (68%) or from housing associations (64%) are more likely to say house prices are too high than home-owners (44%). Those facing the biggest housing affordability challenges, people aged 18 to 34 (58%) and those living in inner London (76%) are more likely to say house prices are too high.
There are significant differences between tenures in how long people have occupied their home. One-third of those renting privately have lived in their home for less than a year, and only 10% have occupied the property for more than a decade. But more than half of owner-occupiers and 43% of households in the social rented sector have lived in their homes for 10 years or more.

Moving on: household mobility

The survey starkly illustrates the impact on household mobility of a stagnant housing market, which has seen a low level of transactions since 2008.
The number of owner-occupiers moving in 2009-10 was 63% lower than two years previously. Just under 1.8 million households moved into their current home in the last 12 months, 10% fewer than in the preceding year. And the number of people moving in the last 12 months was lower than in any of the preceding 15 years.
Those aged 16 to 24 are most likely to have moved recently, with almost half (45%) changing their home in the last 12 months. In contrast, only 2% of householders aged 65 or over have moved in the last year. Asked why they had moved, just over one-third of households (34%) cited job-related, family or personal reasons, including marriage, divorce and separation.Asked about public policy objectives, 5% of people say housing should be the highest priority for extra government spending, a long way behind health (41%) and education (33%). Help for industry was in third place, with 6% saying it should be the highest priority.
Asked what the government should do to make homes more affordable, 29% favour financial assistance to first-time buyers, 23% support increased access to mortgages and 19% think the government should give more money to housing associations and local authorities to build more social homes for people on low incomes.
More than half (51%) think the government should give both advice and financial assistance to people at risk of losing their home because of mortgage payment problems. Forty-two per cent believe the government should provide advice but not financial assistance.
Perhaps surprisingly, owner-occupiers are less likely than those renting to favour financial support for those facing possession. Only 5% of people overall believe the government should do nothing to help owner-occupiers at risk of losing their home.

Age and tenure

Tenure varies significantly between people in different age groups, as Chart One shows. Half of those renting privately are aged 16 to 34, and a fifth of those in the social rented sector are in this age group. But only 11% of owner occupiers are aged under 35.
There has also been a significant shift in tenure for young adults over the last 30 years. Chart Two shows that, back in 1981, more than one-third of those aged 16 to 24 (36%) rented in the social sector, with equal proportions (32%) being either owner-occupiers or renting privately.
By 2009-10, however, the proportion of this age group renting privately had almost doubled to 62%. Only 14% were home-owners, with the proportion renting in the social sector declining to 23%
Now, less than 1% of owner-occupiers are aged 16 to 24. Almost three-quarters of home-owners (70%) are aged 25 to 64.
Of those who own their home outright, 60% are retired. A large majority of those buying with a mortgage are working full-time (84%), with only 6% working part-time and 4% retired. Only 23% of those in the social rented sector are in full-time work, and 60% of households in this tenure have no members in work.
Among first-time buyers, 89% are working full-time, compared to 55% of other home-owners. Almost one-third (32%) of other home-owners are retired.
Nearly half (49%) of those buying with a mortgage have two members of the household in work. There are also significant differences in income between people in different tenures, with those buying with a mortgage having an average income of £47,200, three times the £15,100 average income of those in the social rented sector.
Almost half of home-owning households (44%) comprise couples with no dependent children, and nearly a quarter (24%) of owner-occupiers are single adults living on their own. Only 3% are lone parents with dependent children.
Most owners have bought their home with a mortgage, but other types of funding have been used additionally in many cases, as shown in Chart Three.
The most frequently reported alternative sources of funding are the proceeds of the sale of a former home (used by 7.8 million households), followed by savings (5.3 million households). But some 1.2 million households have used no source of finance other than a mortgage.
The last 15 years has seen a huge shift in the types of mortgages held by home-owners. By 2009-10, only 732,000 households had a mortgage they were planning to repay with an endowment, compared to 5.1 million in 1996-7. Over the same period, the number of repayment mortgages has almost doubled, from 2.8 million to 5.2 million.

Mortgage payments – and arrears

Differences in the amount of monthly mortgage payments vary significantly, partly depending on the type of loan and the age of the borrower.
For those with repayment mortgages, the average weekly payment is £147, with 58% of households paying between £60 and £179 a week. Households with an endowment mortgage have the lowest average weekly repayments (at £91) with 47% paying less than £60 a week and only 22% paying £120 or more (including endowment policy premiums).
The highest weekly repayments are made by those aged 25 to 44, at around £155. Payments by those aged 65 or more average £76 a week, largely because they are usually nearing the end of their mortgage term and bought their home when property prices were considerably lower than today.
Just over 2% of households said that mortgage difficulties had led them to give up their home. Of these, 37.5% sold to avoid getting into arrears, with just over 22% selling while in arrears but without the lender taking court action.
Just over 20% left their property voluntarily with the lender taking it over, and another 20% left after a court order for possession had been made.

Conclusion

The latest data from the ESH confirms that owner-occupation is by far the most popular tenure. Nonetheless, there has been a decline in recent years in home-ownership – and a sharp rise in the number renting privately.
The survey also shows how the economic recession and the credit crunch have slowed down the appetite and ability of people to move home. It provides a stark confirmation of the affordability problems for first-time buyers, with home-ownership heavily skewed towards the middle-aged and the elderly.
However challenging it is for policy-makers to help devise solutions, and for would-be first-time buyers to step on to the housing ladder, it is important to continue to recognise the strength of aspirations to home-ownership, and to help households achieve their goals where possible.